On Living Larders, Part 1: A Definition

On our way back home from a consultancy, Takota Coen and I were talking about how brilliant permaculture is at solving problems, specifically when it comes to food security. After some productive [...]

The Hidden Risks of Autonomous Farming, Part 2

Last time, I posed the following questions: 1) What are the hidden black swans associated with relegating all food production to robotics? 2) Is food production important enough that we should [...]

Land as Insurance, Part 2: The Black Swan Theory

Last time, we talked about predictable risk that falls within a Gaussian distribution. But not all risk follows this pattern; some risks are rare and catastrophic and can only be explained in [...]

Our Permaculture Homestead – Video Tour

Join us for a beautiful and info-packed video tour of our permaculture homestead! This is a 3-part series where we explain and explore our: – thriving food forest complete with fruit trees, [...]

Eating Beyond Organic for Cheap

I want to take the time today to address a question many ask: How do we eat beyond organic for less than the costs of eating conventional? First off, let’s define what “beyond organic” means. [...]

Gains From Catching Rain In Drains: A Video Explanation Of The Rain Tank Project

In this video Rob showcases one of the major water harvesting feature – an underground rainwater cistern – on Rob and Michelle’s urban home property. This rain tank is unique because [...]

Summer Greenhouse Update, Plus How We’d Design the Next One!

Our How we designed our Solar Greenhouse blog is one of the most read blogs on our website, so I thought it was time for an update! This post will cover the benefits of our greenhouse, the [...]

The Grass Isn’t Greener…

If you’ve been following permaculture in Calgary, then you’ve probably been hearing about Permablitz – the transformation of lawns into productive, abundant landscapes. You may be [...]

How We Designed Our Solar Greenhouse

We live and garden on an urban lot in Calgary, Canada, located on the 51st parallel north and approximately 80 km east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. This northern climate presents [...]

Australian Permaculture Tour – Part II

This is part two of a four part series about two Canadian permaculture enthusiasts and their three month journey exploring, visiting and learning about the what’s going on in the [...]

The Story of Soil

What is the difference between soil and dirt? Soil is alive. Dirt is dead. A single teaspoon of soil can contain billions of microscopic bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. A handful of the [...]

Grass is sooo 80’s!

Another food forest installation in Calgary – yipee! The group of students from our Springtime Introduction to Permaculture class taught through Clean Calgary got together one beautiful [...]

The Biodome- Combining aquaculture and gardening is so smart!

The Biodome is a large dome located here at the Folkecenter that combines a hydroponic greenhouse with an aquaculture system. It utilizes an integrated approach to water and nutrient reuse, [...]